Logic+Emotion explores the thinking and practice of building responsive & resilient brands in a connected world

Monday, October 03, 2016

Before there was social media—before there was mobile and the video revolution, there was blogging. Once heralded as a revolution in communications and to a degree, marketing—self expression and direct publishing of the written word became an influential force to be dealt with.

Blogging, in written word form of has been a commodity for some time.

Even as I write this on the reality is less people are taking in the written word, opting instead for “junk food” media which comes in highly shareable and snackable bits of sticky, mobile optimized content.

Today however, it is content itself that has and will continue to become the commodity. Content in all forms—even mobile optimized and snackable content. There’s simply too much of it.Most of it is not very good and even if it is—the amount of effort it takes to make sure that content will travel far and wide makes for considerable effort. Many will do this well but more will fail.

So what is value in today’s connected marketing and media landscape?

Culture

The ability to create it, influence it, co-create it and integrate a brand so seamlessly in culture and relevant sub cultures.This is the next frontier of marketing and communicationsand while it has much to do with things like social, mobile and content—it is the cultural aspect that must lead while everything else follows. A very excellent article in Harvard Business Review reflects some of this shift, labeling it within the context of something Douglas Holt calls “Crowdculture”:

“While companies have put their faith in branded content for the past decade, brute empirical evidence is now forcing them to reconsider. In YouTube or Instagram rankings of channels by number of subscribers, corporate brands barely appear. Only three have cracked the YouTube Top 500. Instead you’ll find entertainers you’ve never heard of, appearing as if from nowhere.

YouTube’s greatest success by far is PewDiePie, a Swede who posts barely edited films with snarky voice-over commentary on the video games he plays. By January 2016 he had racked up nearly 11 billion views, and his YouTube channel had more than 41 million subscribers.”

The challenge for brands is that they often times cannot create culture by themselves.Today’s culture creators often thrive in “sub cultures”—niche groups that exist under more mainstream areas whether it be food, sports, fashion—lest you think this only applies to “consumer brands” it does not.Subcultures exist in business as well and continue to diversify as business itself becomes more specialized and niche.

Brands and Organizations Must Become Collaborators and Co-Creators of Culture

Today and tomorrow’s challenge for brands and organizations is to tweak their marketing and communications infrastructure so they can effectively collaborate with influencers of culture across the spectrum.If brands cannot create culture from scratch—they can co-create it with the right partners across the paid, owned, earned and social spectrum.But to do this at scale, they must understand the ecosystem of influence and re-structure internally to connect that ecosystem and approach peer to peer influence from all sides.

The Influencer Ecosystem

Brands and organizations who wish to influence culture and become co-creators of it, must begin to coordinate how they approach working with those who wield influence, coming at it from different directions. For example, TIME magazine featured a cover telling us that we should “eat butter”. While earned in nature, the story and the journalists behind it are playing a key role in the resurgence of butter and how Americans are re-thinking fat. It’s an example of media influencing culture—in this particular example, this kind of influence cannot be bought—it must be earned, however, increasingly cultural influencers such as “YouTubers” require paid means to collaborate with. The influencer ecosystem can be broken down as such:

Cultural InfluencersThese can be celebrities but increasingly, it is the influencers of subcultures—those who are building audiences via Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube etc. that are becoming today’s trusted voices. In 2015, Variety reported on a survey which displayed a trend where digital celebrities (YouTubers etc.) began eclipsing traditional celebrities in terms of popularity:

“Sehdev predicts that within five years, YouTube stars will consume the entire top-20 celebrity influencer list, and aging teens will grow into a sizable fanbase for online talent overall. But that will require YouTube stars to remain genuine and relatable as they gain in popularity.”

However despite this trend, there are significant implications for brands. As stated above, the digital stars must remain genuine and relatable which makes working with them a challenge as brands must learn to collaborate vs. dictate heavy handed marketing. Also, brands must develop repeatable ways they can work with all levels of these types of influencers. As it is an emerging space often requiring complex contracts, disclaimers and transparency—it brings new operational dynamics to the table.

Reputational InfluencersThese can range from employees to thought leaders to analysts and experts and while they often influence consumers or customers who are highly informed and connected themselves. The challenge here for brands is that much of what they do in this space is often times disconnected from what they do with cultural influencers—but should be more integrated. Not long ago, Edelman (my employer) announced a strategic partnership with a start up called Dynamic Signal. One of the key benefits of their platform Voicestream is the ability to harness the networks of either cultural or reputational influencers acting as amplifiers of content that a brand places in front of them. Integration and accountability in terms of performance is now becoming possible, but brands must first connect efforts here.

Media Influencers As the TIME example illustrates—media in all its forms led by journalists and the media companies they work with can often influence culture and sub cultures also appealing to informed audiences who often share their content. But it isn’t just the “professionals”—while blogging itself has become much of a commodity there is still a role for blogger networks with niche audiences who have built audience and work with brands (often requiring a financial transaction) to incorporate their products and services into their content. But here again whether earned or paid—integration opportunity exists as what all three groups have in common is getting through to peer networks who then influence each other.

“Content Marketing” came after social media and mobile and it enjoyed a good run.But it’s not enough to create content in a complex media ecosystem that makes it extremely difficult to break though and earn attention.Brands will have to learn how to influence culture and sub cultures by collaborating with those who create it externally while coordinating their fractured functions internally. And they’ll have to do it in ways that can be repeated and scaled.

Sunday, May 04, 2014

Recently, I attended an industry roundtable alongside a variety of marketers from different industries, all on the brand side. These are smart and accomplished individuals who gathered together to discuss real time marketing and what it means for their organizations. When asked what their favorite example of real time marketing was—most deferred to the obvious answer: Oreo's "dunk in the dark!" With much respect to the brand that got the real time conversation started—it's time to move on.

From Real Time Marketing to Building Responsive BrandsReal-time marketing is indeed a real thing, but we're going to have to stop chasing our own version of the Oreo moment if we're going to make progress in this area. First we have to really get our heads wrapped around the foundation to understand what we're actually trying to do—and what we're trying to do is build brands differently. We essentially have two tools at our disposal: content and engagement. This is where many of us miss the mark. We underestimate how difficult it is to use these tools. A recent article featuring Coke's content efforts underscores how arduous a task it is for a brand and organization to create, curate and publish a regular stream of valuable content. In the race to real-time, we've over simplified this. Secondly—when, how, why and how often a brand engages has become an art and science. The NYPD learned this lesson the hard way when they wanted to simply promote their cause.

Re-Thinking Our Core TeamsBefore we go any further down the rabbit hole of real time marketing, we must take into account that the core team needed to actually take on the role of planning & producing content as well as partnering with third parties and coordinating media purchases looks a little differently than the traditional core teams whether it's an advertising model or other. Editorial sensibilities must be combined with creative instincts and craft. Social aptitude must be core to engagement strategies and tactics. Media spend is increasingly becoming difficult to separate out as it becomes part of the content strategy and analytics must be more agile than ever.

Enter The Content StrategistContent strategy or content marketing for that matter isn't new—but there aren't exactly thousands of content strategists with years of experience under their belts sitting around waiting to take their rightful position as key member of today's responsive brand building team. Content strategists will also look differently from how they may have operated in the past with a holistic view of the way content can live, breath and flow across paid, owned, earned and shared properties and media. They will need to partner closely with media counterparts and be intimately involved in the connections planning.

Having put this thinking forward—there's much to be said about in regards to culture, talent and pure ingenuity. When it was my turn to say what my favorite example of "real time marketing was", I gave a recent client example because I was close to it. If I had the chance to answer again—I would have said Honey Maid. Take a look—now that's a responsive brand.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

This isn't a post about social business—it's about doing business in a connected age, and this is an important distinction. Let me take a step back for a moment. In April 2009, exactly five years ago I took a chance and joined a start up that didn't have a name at the time and only a handful of employees. That start-up ended up being called Dachis Group, which was recently acquired by SaaS platform Sprinklr. There was a single reason I joined the emerging organization in pre-infancy. Jeff Dachis, who co-founded Razorfish—one of the original digital agencies said the following sequence of words which I had never heard before, and deeply resonated with me.

Social Business Design

While my time with the start-up was brief, I never wavered from the belief that was core to what social business stood for. Everything had changed, and while we were a handful of true believers at the time, we all instinctively knew that the way business functioned was going to be impacted for the years to come. Now fast-forward five years later...

I touch a lot of clients and initiatives and our engagements can range from producing a regular and relevant stream of content for our client's brands to working side by side with them to figure out the infrastructure needed to support different forms of engagement with a variety of stakeholders. I had been spending some time recently on our beta version of "Dairy Hub"—one of the latest manifestations of evolution we've undertaken with our willing parters of the US dairy industry and it dawned upon me this is just scratching the surface of what we used to call social business. And looking forward, it's simply how all business will operate in one way or another (many are well on their way).

However, the "Dairy Hub" alone isn't social business—it's one of many initiatives which were driven by a strategy and vision to bring the industry together and create value for a variety of stakeholders. The real story behind the the evolution had more to do with how we collaborated with the CEO of DMI and his team and aligning their efforts as well as ours over the years. It's the heavy lifting stuff you don't always hear about but is always necessary for real change to occur. It takes years.

More on Dairy another time—back to doing business in a connected age. Below are a few areas which are highly relevant to how business needs to continue to change moving forward. They are how...

The Cloud Connects UsCloud technologies are eliminating the need for consumers and enterprises to store massive amounts of data by themselves through offering up an infrastructure which allows businesses to set up shop virtually overnight and empowers data sharing like we've never seen before. It's also potentially a security nightmare.

Content Connects UsAs advertising becomes gradually easier to ignore or skip—brands are under pressure to leverage all forms of content which either educate, inform or entertain us. Never have brands had to work so hard to get their target audience to pay attention to them.

Mobility Connects UsPay close attention to Facebook's strategy of unbundling the Facebook experience into an ecosystem of mobile first experiences. Mobility is on it's way to becoming the dominant way people interact with technology. Facebook understands this, having learned the hard way originally putting the desktop experience before mobile.

Sharing Connects UsIt's been described as the sharing or collaborative economy, but it's yet another way that connecting is changing the face of how we want to exchange goods and services. E-commerce allowed us to buy new or used—now we can connect to those who can help us get our needs met perhaps without actually buying anything.

The thing that's driving massive change in organizations today is the fact that we've become connected in a number of ways that haven't existed in the past. It's bigger than social. It's bigger than mobile. It's bigger than wearables. And it will take years to work through as connections empower individuals across the board.

Thursday, August 07, 2008

So here's my first pass at the cover design for the upcoming sequel to the Age of Conversation. If you don't know the story, the first copy raised nearly 20k for Children's Variety Charity and the books feature single page perspectives from dozens of voices who are active participants in online communities and experts on topics ranging from marketing to design to social networking.

As that other famous Aussie, Gavin Heaton noted: we're Back in Black. :-)

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Update:Join us for a virtual office tour (Chicago) on Wed, October 24th at 2:00 CST.Join us for a digital ideation session on Monday, October 22 at 1:00 CSTNeil Clemmons' post on Design for Emergence comes at an interesting time. The Always in Beta site that our team launched for the Forrester Consumer Forum was designed and intended to be a "one trick pony"—an event destination that captured a behind-the-scenes LIVE glimpse into the Forrester conference.

But a funny thing happend on the way back from the forum. The site got a decent amount of buzz and traffic and our own employees have been tuning into it as we've been broadcasting from different offices and events. So we're wondering if we should keep our little experiment live and if so—what do we do with it?

This is where you come in. Tomorrow, (Monday) at 1:00 CST, we will turn on the Webcam as we discuss the future of the Always in Beta site. We've already been tossing a few iterative ideas around (above), but have not had a true ideation session yet. So, we're hoping to do that tomorrow. If you think you have some ideas—come by and use the chat to participate in the session. Right now, all we know is that we think this thing has potential. We'd like to use the site to continue experimentation—as well as provide value.

Friday, May 25, 2007

"The majority of those reaching out to embrace this trend have their
roots in the UI industry rather than industrial design. While
traditional product and graphic design practitioners enter the field
with a foundation based on design history, emphasis on form, method and
process, those in the UI field come from myriad backgrounds such as
software engineering, marketing, and brand strategy. Without a common
heritage and education, these designers are more comfortable working
with disparate client groups and in interdisciplinary teams."~Niti Bhan, Seismic Shift: Rethinking the Design Industry

Sunday, April 29, 2007

I just finished my contribution for The Age of Conversation E-book. The name of my "chapter"? The Relationship Renaissance. The idea for the contribution came initially from Roger von Oech's question during his write-up on me a while back:

"Let’s suppose Digitas says, “David, we’ll pay you to take off
two months to write a 200 page book about marketing, creativity, and
new media.” What would your “take” be?"

My answer?

"The title of my book would be: “The Relationship Renaissance: How design, social media and technology have created an explosion in creativity, and communication.” And the premise:

Some have called it a revolution. Others evolution. But are we really living in an age of digitally fueled invention and re-discovery? Enabled by technology, architected
through experience and supported with an “open source” thought
democracy—we are living in a relationship renaissance which is forcing
us to re-think the definition of brands, marketing and how we think
about “consumers.”

And since I haven't been given time off to write a book—I did the next best thing. I used the idea in my contribution (just over 500 word essay). I won't give too much away, but here is an excerpt:

"What sparked the original Renaissance? Some historians speculate that the “Black Death” had something to do with it. The theory is that this caused individuals to focus on the quality of their lives on earth in addition to the afterlife. As a result, art and science exploded with the help of Greek and Arabic knowledge.

Maybe our own “Black Death” has been business as usual. In Advertising. In Business. In our everyday lives. To be called a “Renaissance Man” means that you possess multidisciplinary talents. Today’s Renaissance men and women combine skills in personal publishing, podcasting, virtual worlds and other kinds of digital disciplines—which connect, converse, and ultimately allow us to relate."

You'll have to buy the e-book for the rest—in addition to tons of great perspectives from over 100 other social media participants and thought leaders. It will be worth the wait. Proceeds go to Variety, the children's charity, and the book is dedicated to the memory of Sandra J. Kerley.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

The above visual is one that I've used before in different contexts. This is a bit of a random thought, but I've been observing some of our Flash/Ajax developers working feverishly over the past few days. There's been a lot of activity here lately and the developers have been working on each others projects. It's not an assembly line. Each touches a part of the project—a piece of the code while another works on other parts. Sometimes it's at the same time. Other times it's not. No one has clear ownership, bugs come up and are taken down one by one. People leave their cubes to go help someone else who's hit a wall. IM's, e-mails, and impromptu "meetings" happen in rapid fashion, unplanned and spontaneously. Territories don't exist—the goal of making the launch date is everything. It's a shared goal—a purpose. QA includes not only links that work correctly but animations and design assets looking just right. Execution and fine-tuning happen simultaneously. It's organic. It's collaborative. It works.

Tip for all the executives out there. Get out of your offices every once in a while and go to where the action is. If you find yourself working in silos—ask yourself why this is. If our people in the trenches can work this way—so can we.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

For the past several years, since this whole "Internet thing" has really taken off—we've been told that handing over control in your content, your brand, your PR, etc.—is risky business. Well it is—there are no guarantees. Remember the Chevy Tahoe ads? Give your consumers a blank piece of paper to write on and you don't know what they'll say about you.

But how safe is it to have complete control of your content these days? A couple of stories have come to my attention recently. At first—I thought they were totally unrelated and I planned on writing about them separately. Now I'm not so sure. In my Marketing Profs Webinar, I called out USA Today's re-design as a good experience citing the easy registration and social features as a big plus. Media Post has just published a report which claims that registrations on USA Today are up a whopping 380%.

"USA TODAY'S COMMUNITY-CENTRIC MAKEOVER LAST month
appears to be paying off in dividends. Indeed, the site has seen a
dramatic 380% increase in registrations since the re-launch, while its
unique visitor rates have grown 21% from February, according to
Nielsen//NetRatings.

Targeting today's interaction-hungry readers, the Gannett-owned paper
last month relaunched its Web site in the guise of a social network
laden with video, blogs, dynamic content-sharing and recommendation
tools.

As such, the new USAToday.com includes expanded user-profile and
social-network capabilities, and public comment and content
contribution tools across the site. In March, nearly 40,000 user
comments were posted on the site."

Can this be chalked up to ROC (Return On Community)? Well, not really. The re-design offered huge improvements all around including a fast and simple registration process which never takes you off the front page. But I do think that the social features have something to do with it as well. So USA Today hands a little "control" over to their community and it turns out pretty well for them.

What about when we seek to control our content? Is there any risk in this? Traditionally there never was—but consider this recent development. Bruce Nussbaum writes about the fact that he was not allowed to blog snippets from A Beautiful Diversion, a free downloadable PDF organized by GK VanPatter of NextD (a site dedicated to the design community). Bruce writes:

"I was censored by GK and told I could not take the 50 comments off
the pdf on his journal. This is what he emailed me: "I believe you have
been ill advised in your “Enemies” mission. I don’t agree/share your
views and ways, so honestly I have no interest in continuing Beautiful
Diversion on your “blog”. We are quite happy with its present
distribution. Thousands have already been downloaded from the NextD
site."

OK, let this sink in for a moment. First we have to ask ourselves "does GK have the right"? Yes, GK has every right—the document is his doing. And he exercised his right through expressing his wishes via e-mail. Now, let's ask a similar question of Bruce—does he have a right to blog about his feelings of "censorship"? Yes, he does. It's Bruce's blog and he exercised his right to speak his mind. In the spirit of transparency, Bruce asked my opinion on this matter and I advised him that if he had strong feelings about this, that he should make it an even broader issue. Bruce did just that—but he went further and added the details of his interaction with GK. This surprised me, but I guess it shows just how strongly he feels about it.

I have to say that I'm fascinated by the dynamic of these events. On one hand we've got mainstream media outlets such as USAToday and BusinessWeek either designing for their communities—or wanting to distribute it's content. On the other hand, you've got a community member seeking to control the format of his content. No disrespect to GK who I don't know—but I'm not sure what the design community gains by this move. Nussbaum's blog has some quality readership, and to be honest—I'm not confident that the average businessperson would download the sixty page document and read it word for word. In my opinion it wouldn't be a bad idea to get some of that content out to a broader audience in bite-sized nuggets. Is this so bad?

So there you have it. It feels a little like bizarro world to me, but I could be wrong. I'll leave this post with a question put toward the contributors of A Beautiful Diversion. Was GK doing the right thing by asking Bruce not to re-distribute your thoughts on his BusinessWeek blog? The question seems only fair since you are the ones who provided the content in the first place. Would love to hear from you.

Friday, April 13, 2007

"Collaborate. The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife,
exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential."~Bruce Mau Design

Let's take another look at "Sun-shaped people"—but before we do that, what is your perception of collaboration? When you hear the word "collaboration" do you envision a group of people holding hands and singing Kum Ba Ya in perfect unison? To some people this is the textbook definition of collaboration. But to others who have collaborated to create something worthy—we know it's messy business. It's not neat and tidy. It's organized chaos in some ways. Authentic collaboration is more like a mosh pit than a carefully rehearsed waltz. Make no mistake, even a mosh pit has a code of ethics and boundaries. But anyone who's ever been in one (I have) will tell you that the people in mosh pits are the nicest you'll ever meet.

So what happens when we take several Sun-shaped people who bring both passion and diverse skills to the table? Here's a hint:

Get ready to mosh.

Sun-shaped people can actually work very well together when galvanized by a common purpose which each individual shares. Take a look at the visual. Each "ray" from one individual "dovetails" with another. I could envision the "Sun-shaped" team members rotating—swapping the respective dovetails as the project time line moves forward.

So this leaves us with a couple of thoughts: what does collaboration really mean anyway, and how can we persuade passionate professionals who tend to be "Sun-shaped"—to rally around a shared purpose?

Monday, April 09, 2007

Where do ideas come from? How do they move beyond the realm of abstract thought into something more tangible?

Every day is an opportunity to learn. To observe. To ask ourselves "why?". And to take things apart before we put them back together. To my surprise—the article I authored for BusinessWeek ended up being featured as the lead story in the Innovation section. And I just noticed that it's in the Top 5 most read stories at #4. Did you know that this article would have never come about it wasn't for the actions of the following individuals? Here's how:

Valeria MaltoniSeveral months ago, Valeria sent me a handwritten note including this phrase "You are designing conversations". It was this simple combination or words which sparked the initial idea that designers could become conversation architects. I thought about how the role of information architects used to be about organizing information and how this is evolving. I asked myself—could we become conversation architects?

Jessi HempelJessi works at BusinessWeek and featured my blog a while back. I sent her an e-mail saying I had an idea around designers/marketers being "conversation architects". That's pretty much all I had. Jessi forwarded my thought to Helen Walters, an editor at BusinessWeek and we began working on the idea some more.

Helen WaltersHelen took the initial draft and encouraged me to broaden the context. She's also responsible for some pretty darn good editing. And she made the brilliant move of turning a key line from the article into the headline "It's The Conversation Economy, Stupid". I buried the lead, and Helen dug it right out again.

Ann HandleyAnn brought me in to Marketing Profs to do a Webinar titled "Emerging Media's Impact on the Customer Experience". Though I found the Webinar to be challenging, it basically ended up acting as my revised outline for current version the article.

Bruce NussbaumBruce caught wind of the Webinar and sent out the signals that he liked what he saw. This added momentum to the idea.

YouNone of this would have happened if it weren't for YOU—the active participants who add to the daily conversation here.

So that's the anatomy behind the article. That's how an abstract idea turns into something more tangible. Inspiration can come from anywhere, at any time. Collaboration is not always what you think it is. And challenging yourself in ways that make you uncomfortable can lead to good things. That's what I learned today.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Thanks to Karl Long, I got a early heads up that my BusinessWeek article has already gone live. The title is "It's The Conversation Economy, Stupid": go and check it out if you have a few minutes to spare. And special thanks to Helen Walters from BusinessWeek who did some fantastic editing on the piece. I really enjoyed that process, and it made the writing much better.

But I'd like to talk about something else that is both directly and indirectly linked to the conversation economy. The diagram associated with this post basically illustrates two possible paths that one can take in pursuit of becoming a "thought leader". In my visual I describe these two paths as the "round world" way and "flat world" way. The point of this visual is to illustrate the different types of behavior one can take to help spread the idea virus.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you already know which path I have chosen. Prior to starting Logic + Emotion as I've stated before—I had never written a whitepaper. In fact, I once wrote a draft for one which never made it past the "formal process". With only an undergrad degree in Design—I don't have an academia pedigree, and it's only been recently (post blog) that I've developed an extensive network. I certainly had no relationships with the MSM, and I was not hired at Digitas to bring any thought leadership to the table—I was hired to be a Creative Director. My everyday job responsibilities (which I seldom discuss here) are very much focused around using my abilities as a director to serve our clients. Think about this in contrast to individuals who are brought into an organization where thought leadership is part of their job. In the "flat world" way they work with their internal PR folks to publish content and make appearances. It's a coordinated affair.

What I'm trying to say here is that this all may be changing. I've bucked the system, just as I'm sure that many of you have as well. In the conversation economy, dialogue rules. Monologue, and rehearsed presentations play second fiddle. An academic or corporate pedigree is nice—but really doesn't matter. If you have something valuable to say and you are willing to listen, share and participate—then you have the opportunity to "submit" your ideas and be heard.

These are the new rules of the conversation age, or economy or whatever you want to call it. This is why, if you have adverse reactions when you hear strange words like "blogging" or "twittering"—then you are a fool. I'm sorry but it's true. I'm not saying that we should all jump on the bandwagon of the latest buzzword or technology that gets thrown out there. I'm actually saying the opposite. We need to investigate the latest tools to the best of our abilities and decide how they impact our own worlds. The blogging movement was never about blogging in the first place—it's about a new way to share, connect, collaborate, discuss, debate, and ideate.

It's always been about us. About people. Eliminate the word "blog" from your vocabulary and you are still left with the power of personal publishing and content distribution. These ideals will never go away—they are hear to stay. This is not a fad.

So back to my original point. How is thought leadership changing? Thought leadership can now come from anywhere. We don't need to work with PR. We are PR. If we can't schmooze at events Because it's not "part of our job"—we will schmooze virtually. Our networks will be formed digitally. What good is a PHD if we can only lecture and not facilitate a meaningful dialogue? Have you ever met an individual with Aspergers? They are usually highly intelligent—some are in the genius realm. But they often struggle with social graces, nuances and conversation outside their areas of expertise. Monologue isn't difficult, but social interactions can tend to be a one-way street. Sometimes I feel like traditional marketing and to some extent thought leadership is like a form of Aspergers—the interactions are a bit narrowly focused on getting their own viewpoint across and it's slightly awkward when things get informal.

I believe that the "flat world" path to thought leadership will not go away. Corporations will still implement formal processes that require defined parameters and requirements. Some will say "yes, you can do this" to some while others say "no, you can't—it's not part of your job". Academia will continue to play a vital role. Schmoozing at the conferences and "being seen" alongside the right people will always be a part of our social fabric. We are social beings. But I do believe that another path exists which extends opportunities do those of us who don't have the connections. Or at least don't start out that way. We will build our foundations digitally. Our "connections" will begin here and move their way into the physical world. Our relationships will be formed purely out of merit—from what we have to offer and what we are willing to share. These relationships will strengthen and evolve as we develop them outside of our digital networks. And some mainstream organizations may take notice.

This brings me to the BusinessWeek article. It wouldn't have been possible without the technology of personal publishing (AKA blogging). I've been able to leverage this platform to make my own rules as opposed to playing by the flat word rules. Like I said, I'm not the only one. I guess that leaves us all with the question of "now what"? And I don't have an answer. Actually, I have the same question. I just wonder what will happen when there are more stories like mine that pop up all over the place. What then? Will we be accepted—or "encouraged" to forsake the flat world path for the traditional round world way? What do you think?

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

So I'm kind of liking this "blog tournament" idea Joseph Jaffe started recently. I think what I like about it is that it's kind of random. Basically Jaffe posed the question "what are some of the most valuable blogs in your opinion?" and used the comments on his blog to cultivate some of the entries. He then took these and placed them into a list which can be voted upon.

So why do I think this is interesting?

Couple of reasons. First off, like I said it's kind of random and by soliciting from his readers—Jaffe bypasses the "conventional" blog success indicators such as Technorati, RSS subscriptions, Alexa rankings etc. If you threw up a link that you found "valuable"—it was thrown into the ring. Of course we need to realize that the blogs are mostly skewed to the marketing-related space due to Jaffe's audience, but that's kind of a given.

But something else caught my attention. BusinessWeek's Nussbaum On Design made the list and Bruce writes about being honored by being featured alongside some of his favorite bloggers. Let's take a moment to digest this nuance. A member of the mainstream media takes pride in being included in a list created and composed of "bloggers". Has it not traditionally not been the other way around? As I've stated in many ways before—the relationship between the MSM and content creating citizens is becoming more open—more like a dialogue. It's still slow going but it does appear to be happening. This doesn't mean that lines are blurred in my opinion—but it does show subtle signs of mutual respect and credibility. And maybe a new kind of "media collaboration". See visuals below:

Anyway, it's more of an observation than anything else. I just wonder if it's something we'll see more of. What do you think? PS, there are some really good blogs on the list. If you see one you haven't checked out before—take a moment to do so:

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Last Friday I wrote about our speaking engagement at Loyola University. The post generated what I think is some of the most interesting discussion on this blog. I'd like to share some of the thoughts as they deserve to exist outside of the comments area, but before doing so—here's a question (and answer):

What if we all live in our own bubbles? Each and every last one of us. We're not omnipotent beings—we are restricted by the boundaries of our own humanity. In short, we can only know as much as we can absorb. And in this age of information, there is a lot to absorb. Too much actually.

BUT

Our bubbles reflect what we know, don't know and what we need to know. If we claim to be marketers, advertisers, designers, public relations or communications professionals—we must take it upon ourselves to fully comprehend the significance of a lone consumer who takes on a huge company with nothing more than a blog and tape recorder. We must make the effort to search out these stories on a daily basis, especially when they are reported by mainstream media (or not). We must study, and learn from them. We must learn from each other.

WE ARE ALL STUDENTS

Teachers, professors, authors, managers, thought leaders, bloggers etc. can all help us learn. But making sure your personal bubble is where it needs to be is up to you, the individual.

[Stepping down from Soapbox now]

Enjoy the comments.

"School is, was and--unless the teaching profession wakes up and starts
embracing change even if it threatens their jobs--will always be
insular and inward looking. Theory, over practice."gabby

"I'm so surprised that a bunch of college students are better versed in
theory and buzzwords than in real world examples. On the other hand,
these kids are at (or at least near) the epicenter of the content
creation movement, so maybe it is surprising after all - not because
they should be learning about it in their marketing course but because
they should be living it."Greg Verdino

"It was not till I got outside and graduated that my eyes were opened to this whole new world.
"Matt Haverkamp

"I can't tell you how many times I talk to agency marketers who have never heard of these 'classic' power consumer moments."jessica

"Professors need to get beyond the security of their assigned
readings and add new books and articles to their selections for every
new class. And then discussions need to center on what is happening in
today's marketing world."Lewis Green

"As I speak to other marketers, and even clients at big-name companies,
they are so busy with their own plans they are really not aware of
social media. It seems like a no-brainer to many of us because we spend
time tracking (or engaging in) it. My typical clients still don't even
have it on their radar screen."Becky Carroll

"When I was teaching business courses on the undergrad level, every
student had to go out and locate a busines, and it's owner, or manager,
or C-level person, to link up with once a week, every week"peter vajda

"Personally, I have learned a lot more practical knowledge through
blogs, social media, open source sharing, etc. than I have from most of
my courses. The classes provide a foundation, but unless you actively
engage in building upon that foundation, it all seems somewhat useless.
It’s like pouring concrete to start a house and then never returning to
continue construction."Ryan Karpeles

"Schools must change. Embrace Non-textbooks as a reliable learning
tools. Create "new-marketing" classes. Have classes dedicated to blogs.
Have marketing speakers on a weekly basis."Jonathan Chamberlin

"I think professors aught to
have a list of at least 10-20 marketing/biz blogs that students should
be reading daily. If the concern on reading a blog is too much, start
them off with Seth's "Small Is The New Big." Let them think out of the
box with Wozniak's book about design."Nathan

"My students are given reading lists equivalent to 'No one got fired for
recommending Microsoft': the dead hand of academe looms large, and
there is more emphasis on correct bibliographic referencing than on
imagination or even relevance."Vee

"Remember how at your Digitas NY prez only like 3 people (in interactive) knew who Seth Godin is? Yep, we live in a bubble."CK

"I've met with many high-profile marketing executives over the past few
months and I can assure you that you would be surprised by their narrow
marketing - and marketplace - knowledge, and hence, perspectives. They
are simply way too busy with their own "marketing bubbles" to care."Tom Asacker

"I did a presentation to an
advertising class at a large university last November...In a show of hands no one in the class knew who lonelygirl15 was and
when I stated talking about Second Life the looks I got were priceless."daniel9223

"I just started regularly reading several trend-watching, news-sharing,
marketing, and advertising blogs this year and it's really helped me to
think more creatively. I only wish I would have started sooner..."Amitha Raman

Friday, January 12, 2007

Joseph Jaffe has invited his community to participate in contributing content to his upcoming book in the form of writing a chapter and/or designing the cover. Here's my stab at a cover idea and here are some insights which inspired the design (from Jaffe's Wiki)

"The central premise is that marketers have an
unprecedented opportunity to rewrite the rules of marketing – and in
doing so, reverse the tide which is slowly but surely turning against
them.

One-way marketing is a one way street out of town.

Two-way marketing is different.

In many respects “conversational marketing” mirrors a
healthy, relationship between two human beings that are on an equal
footing."

I initially was going to show two individuals conversing (on equal footing) but then I thought that what this is really about is initiating and sustaining an ongoing dialogue with your community. Being accessible, as opposed to aloof. Being engaged and genuine. Caring about your community and not just seeing them as customers with money to spend.

But it all comes down to a moment of truth.

The moment we decide to JOIN. That's what this book cover idea shows. It's the moment an individual, brand, company, corporation etc. decides to stop talking at folks and starts engaging in meaningful dialogue and action.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

"Social media, according to Wikipedia,
includes "the online tools and platforms that people use to share
opinions, insights, experiences and perspectives with each other." This
includes blogs, message boards, podcasts, wikis, vlogs and so on. For
the last few years this was all considered related to, but separate
from mainstream media. That point of differentiation is now gone."

OK, Karl here is my 2 cents:

No, I don't think that the lines will blur to the point that the labels of Social Media and Mainstream Media (MSM) become pointless or moot. What my visual shows above is a clear separation between the two—however there exists a level of interaction that hasn't happened before in the past. They now openly feed off of each other. Mainstream media seems to no longer be ignoring the Social Media movement. They are, in fact working in tandem with Social Media content generators—getting scoops, watching, reading, subscribing. I know this because several MSM'ers have subscribed to my blog.

But does this mean that the lines blur and the distinction goes away? Steve Rubel is a bright guy and he knows this space way better than I do, so he maybe taking a provocative position (or a long term visionary one)—but in my opinion we've got a long way to go before MSM and Social Media are indistinguishable.

Here's a few anecdotal first hand experiences to help illustrate the points I am making.

1. When I watch the news/listen to the radio, I still hear journalists speaking skeptically of Social Media even though they now openly reference it in their stories. Plus, I’ve worked in Newsrooms in both print and broadcast years ago, many of the same people still remain in power at the top.

2. Most of the people I work with are vaguely familiar with my blog (some not at all) and usually only perk up when they hear about the BusinessWeek/Boston Globe mentions. In fact, even though this blog has moved very quickly in a short amount of time, my actual work responsibilities haven't changed much since before I started the blog.

3. Many mainstream media outlets have their own versions of blogs, podcats etc. but this isn't Social Media—it's the MSM using technologies such as Podcasting, personal publishing or RSS to distribute content in new ways. They are using the techology to innovate how their content is shared or even interacted with.

4. Whether we like it or not, us content creators are still fighting for credibility. It's getting better—but we don't have the clout of a New York Times/WSJ piece etc. There's a distinction there. Sorry. And lots of bloggers are in the midst of writing good old-fashioned books (Godin, Jaffe, Shel) etc. Why? Credibility—and exposure to those who still aren't participating (or even consuming user generated content). Yes, for some if it's not in a book—it's not real.

So if I were to make a prediction for the next year or two, it wouldn’t be that the line between the two would dissolve and that Social Media as we know it dies (or the MSM for that matter) however, I think a more probable scenario is that Social Media steadily begins to establish more mainstream credibility. The MSM continues to be more open about leveraging their Social Media sources—we see more Vincent Ferarri's taking on AOL's and more video taping of Comcasts etc.

And here's a sign of the times. Lately on the evening news I have noticed a new phenomina. Many of the video clips that are being featured are pulled straight off of YouTube. You see the logo and everything. Is that blurring of the lines? Well, it's getting closer to it—but it's not. When we see Amanda Congden replace Katie Couric—well then MAYBE the lines have completely blurred.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Mindblob has gone through the trouble of documenting our recent adventure together in refining the "levels of influence" idea. For the first time, I get someone else to do a visual for me—and I didn't even have to ask.

"The incredible thing is that Armano pointed this paradigm months ago on his "Sharing ideas in Flat vs. Round Worlds"
scheme. This time, the process is proven through a real blogging
experience. How surprising it is to discover that the subject was
blogging itself. In french there is an expression that describes this :
"une mise en abyme"... like Hamlet of Shakespeare, a play telling a
story of a play revealing the plot of Hamlet, the play."

"He initiated an idea and shared his vision of a subject on his blog.
His idea was immediately "criticised" (positively) by the readers of
his blog. Their feedback fed David's original idea and so, the first
visualisation evolved and grew, step by step, to reach higher levels of
accuracy. David modified and re-shaped his idea progressively and
changed his original visualisation to get a new one, closer to the
reality shared by his "sphere of influence".

Monday, August 28, 2006

I recently Googled the word “Blogsourcing” to see what would come up. I found this:

“The practice of news gatherers outsourcing to blogs the quotes they would usually get from interviews with qualified sources. It’s easier to find online a quote from a blogger than to wait for a conversation with someone in a position of authority.”

What I have in mind is actually blending the idea of crowdsourcing with using blogs to refine an idea. Thus coming up with the idea of “Blogsourcing”

“While not a new idea, it is becoming mainstream. Open source projects are a form of crowdsourcing that has existed for years. People who may not know one another work together online to create complex software such as the Linux kernel, MySQL database, and the Firefox browser. In recent years Web 2.0 technology has evolved to allow non-technical people to participate in online projects.”

Building upon ideas in the blogoshpere is nothing new. Actually, it's a hallmark of how the Social Network operates. I’ve been using this blog to help refine my own thinking. Did this recently on the “Influence Ripples” and "Levels of Influence" posts. I wanted to create a really simple visual to capture that process. Essentially the "process" went something like this.

Friday: Had a e-mail conversation with Mack Collier about the “A-lister” phenomenon.Friday Night: Posted visual to blog with idea for future presentation.Saturday: Idea gets commented on, discussed, parts validated, parts invalidated on this blog and other blogs.Saturday Night: Post revised idea based off of ongoing discussions of original idea.Sunday: Revised idea gets commented on, discussed, parts validated, parts invalidated on this blog and other blogs.

In the end, I’m using my judgment to make the final call that best fits my needs—but the takeaway is that I received valuable feedback from an engaged and qualified body of people which helped me take an idea and make it better. This is something that companies need to be thinking seriously about. “R&D” does not have to be a huge expensive undertaking that only happens in labs. With the use of a Social Network tool like Typepad (or for something more robust, like Basecamp) you can publish in seconds and harness the strength of virtual communities (or even your employees) to discuss, validate and improve upon ideas. E-mail cannot do this. Neither can surveys. Food for thought.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Timing as they say is everything. Agency.com asks the advermarketing community What is Viral Marketing? CBS asks the question: What is Viral video? So here is an interesting case study. On one hand, you have the example of an interactive agency testing the waters by creating their own viral experiment. On the other, you have the Mainstream Media which surprisingly does a decent job providing a 30,0000 foot view of what Viral Video means to the masses.

Here are a few choice bits from the CBS piece:

“Average people talking about products they like—the ultimate word of mouth”

“You can’t just create a viral video—it needs to be organic. It needs to be grassroots. It needs to be real. The user will realize what’s real and what’s fake.”

“It’s really more of an art than a science”

“Sometimes they are going to laugh with you. Other times they’re going to laugh at you”

So do you agree or disagree with the examples on the CBS piece? Any thoughts about the Logitech case study and how it actually increased sales without Logitech lifting a finger? What about the Converse example vs. Coke?

And where does the agency.com example fit into this? Instead of raw, real, messy user generated content—the agency.com execution went with a more produced approach complete with editing effects, music, and it was branded Subway. The stars of the video were the employees.

A lot of questions here and I certainly don’t claim to have the answers. One thing is for sure, the viral video movement is big. It has an impact. And when you roll—big or small, brace yourselves for that impact.

Huge tip of the hat to Joseph Jaffe who is arguably the most well dressed man in our business. Nice going Joe. Now my wife thinks your look matches the voice that she fell in love with. *Sigh.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

I have to tell you—one of my pet peeves is talk without action. So when we talk about opening up brands to consumers, handing over control and allowing them to "co-create" with their consumers—we need to follow our own advice. So I'm opening up my own personal brand. I'm giving away a just a little of that control.

As of today, I'll be granting authoring privilages of Logic + Emotion to some other bloggers. I have no idea what they will be posting, and I will not approve their content before hand—they will control what they want to publish. My "guests" will represent the people who have been
influencing me in this digital adventure. I hope you join me in extending
a warm welcome to them—because as I stated earlier, this is not
my blog. It's yours too.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

In my mind, HP’s latest spots mark a quiet but meaningful turnaround in the saga of the 30 second spot. Here’s why. HP launches a new campaign—”The Computer Is Personal Again”, which on the surface seems typical. But take a closer look and there’s more to it than meets the eye. To start—the spots were launched online before going to television and they seem to be tailored to the “plugged in demographic” stressing the influence of the Social Media Network. From HP’s site:

“The next round of "The Computer is Personal Again" campaign - three commercials starring Mark Burnett, Mark Cuban and Pharrell Williams - will premiere online before appearing on television.

"We are seeing great interest in the number of blog links and online buzz created by the first two ad spots," said David Roman, vice president of marketing communications, Personal Systems Group, HP. "Online video sites and their prominence in the blog community are today's 'word-of-mouth,' providing a very personal avenue to help HP reach an audience that doesn't necessarily respond to traditional media, but who will watch an ad online if it's been recommended by a well-liked blogger or a friend."

That last part about a “well liked blogger or a friend” is really critical. What the Ad world is experiencing is a shift in where viewers are going, and in the online space—it’s all about word of mouth. We’ll go find something if someone we know has said good things about it. And as the case is with You Tube—sometimes we don’t need to go very far (like how I’m featuring one of the Ads here).

But, here’s where I see signs of new life. First of all—I want to watch these ads. They are mesmerizing—hard to take your eyes off. And the idea is solid—to get people talking about technology in a non-technology way. OK, fine—Apple did it first. So what? These spots are distinct enough to live on their own. And here is another key move to this new 30 second formula. The inclusions of relevant influencers like "Jay-Z" and Mark Cuban. Cuban is a brilliant choice. He spans multiple worlds—influencing both sports fans and bloggers. The way the ads use these individuals is key. It’s not the old school endorsement. In fact, the individuals in the spots never mention HP.

And of course you can create your own spot, complete with your photos etc. Check out what fellow blogger Eric Kintz created. Eric, I have to say—your spot is both cool and freaky. I didn’t expect to see you with an 80’s hair band doo. I’m still recovering.

So what do you think? Is this type of campaign the new 30 second spot? Is the formula something like better creative + online integration + You Tube + Co-creation? Will it all equal the re-birth of the 30 second spot? And what does this mean for all of the ho-hum marketing that is still served up en masse through our “Moo Tubes”?

Is that cash cow enjoying it’s final days? And how long till it goes out to pasture?

Oh yeah. last thought. The ever crafty Goodby, Silverstein & Partners are behind this latest effort. Good stuff, but I'm still waiting for the GSPB (Goodby Silverstein & Partners Blog).

Monday, July 10, 2006

So Coke wasn’t a big fan of the whole Mentos thing. They couldn’t control it. They didn’t agree with the way that Diet Coke was being used. They wanted complete control over their brand and what it stands for. Here is how they responded to the whole thing (via WSJ).

"It's an entertaining phenomenon," said Coke spokeswoman Susan
McDermott. "We would hope people want to drink [Diet Coke] more than
try experiments with it." Coke could use some extra buzz right now.
Sales volume of Diet Coke in the U.S. was essentially flat last year,
as consumers switch from diet sodas to bottled water and other
noncarbonated drinks. But Ms. McDermott says that the "craziness with
Mentos ... doesn't fit with the brand personality" of Diet Coke."

But wait—Coke learned from this experience. They figured out that consumers don’t just want to “consume” products and brands—they want to get creative with them. They want an open mic. They want a platform. They want a voice, and they want to be both seen and heard.

So Coke is now giving it to them. On Coke’s terms of course. From Adweek:

“as of this week, visitors to Coke.com can take part in "The Coke Show," monthly "challenges" testing their creativity.

In the first challenge, set to run through August, users are invited to submit short videos, but they're not limited to creating ads or odes to the brand. Instead, Coke is asking for 45-second video expressions of "the essence of you." Visitors will rate submissions, culling them down to 10, which will be judged by a group of professional filmmakers.

Coke got a lesson in the power of consumer creativity with the recent hit viral video of two men creating geysers with Diet Coke and Mentos (when combined, they spark a liquid explosion). Asked about it, a Coke representative told The Wall Street Journal in June that it was "entertaining," but didn't "fit with the brand personality."

Now, Coke is giving consumers a fair amount of free rein-with boundaries. "We give the structure, we try to give the guidance, but we're looking for consumers to fill it with content that's relevant to them rather than us talking to them," said representative Andras Kallos. The site, created by independent AKQA, will roll out in 28 markets.”

And note the agency that will be working on this kind of initiative. AKQA. Not the big bloated traditional “above the line” agency. Well, the effort is not perfect—it would be nice if Coke was less controlling of their brand, but at least they are willing to acknowledge the desire for people to want to engage with brands by creating content with and for them.

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Well, it’s live. My co-hosting of the second most popular marketing Podcast (according to iTunes). #42 of Joseph Jaffe’s Across The Sound is up. I hope I did OK. Chatting it up with Jaffe is harder than you think. He’s got an incredible presence, is sharp as a knife and to top it all off, there’s that accent. To put this in context—my wife was listening to the recording and she instantly fell in LOVE with Jaffe’s voice. I’m not kidding. I was like “Hey honey—what about me? How did i do??”

:)

So, I hope I did justice to the some areas I care about. I tried to use the discussion to “promote” four issues:

-The Logic + Emotion story -The evolution of creativity-The importance of building brands while creating community + converZAtion (Jaffe picks on my sporadic Lawng Eyesland accent)—But note that I’m not the one who mangled Vincent "FerraZI's" name... :)-The need for Advermarketing to create both good experiences + interactive stories

So the morale of the story is this: doing the podcast was fun—but I really need to work on my “radio voice”. Oh and for the single fellas out there—if you are competing for a ladie's attention with a gentleman who has both smarts and a foreign accent—just hang up your hat and walk away.

Hope you enjoy the podcast.

Oh yeah. Last point. Jaffe announced a big time guest that you will want to know about. I won’t give it away—but here’s a hint. This person is on everyone’s blogroll. Except mine.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

With all this free time I have on my hands—I thought I'd volunteer to design a T-shirt for the Jaffe Juice Joggers. Joseph and friends are having a little vote for the best design over at Across The Sound. Go over and check it out. May the best T-Shirt win. :)

Friday, June 16, 2006

Q. What do you get when you partner the fastest moving Advertising/Marketing 2.0 evangelist with the fastest moving creative blogger?A. A podcast you won’t want to miss.

I’ll be co-hosting the next ATS Podcast with Joseph Jaffe next week. We’ll be recording on the eve. Of Sunday June 25th. I have no idea what we’ll be talking about, but something tells me it should be interesting. Jaffe’s been thinking a lot about the future of advertising and I’ve been thinking about the future of creativity. Tune in.

Monday, May 29, 2006

NY Times has a nice piece about the "open source" movement. References Firefox Flicks among others. The "brand reformation" part is priceless. We can now all engage in a direct relationship with the "Almighty Brand".

“The rise of consumer-generated advertising can be viewed as either a
boon to brands (outsourcing marketing to loyal customers) or a threat
(handing marketing over to a bunch of uncontrollable amateurs). When
G.M. solicited consumer input in online ad-making for its Chevy Tahoe,
many people responded with anti-S.U.V. messages. Grant McCracken, an
author, anthropologist and consultant, takes a broader view, describing
consumer involvement as a kind of branding Reformation: marketing
professionals used to be the high-priest gatekeepers, but now we can
all have a direct relationship with the Almighty Brand.

He refers to
this as brand "co-creation" (a term he credits to C.K. Prahalad, a
business professor at the University of Michigan),
and sees it as both inevitable and smart, even in the case of the Tahoe
controversy. "The era of the brand that's blandly constructed and hopes
not to offend anyone — to be pleasant — that notion is really dead,"
McCracken says."

Sunday, May 28, 2006

I love this piece from Hugh. It perfectly sums up the state of the industry—and I think it provides an insight as to why blogs among other "social network" platforms are being embraced in mainstream fashion.

So let's start with the obvious. People are more informed and empowered than ever, and as a result they are gradually tuning out the traditional methods of marketing communications. But why have blogs become such an integral part of the evolving "open source" model?

Here's a way to look at this. Think about the job interview process. When we are on the job search, there are several sources that we get information from. The recruiter, HR, external resources and if we are lucky, we know someone who works for the company.

Which source of information would you most likely trust? If you said HR, you are probably lying. Most people would trust someone they know who works for the company for the "real scoop" on what it's like to work there.

It's not so different with blogs. Blogs are becoming the "insider" of our time. Not only a source of information, but of information exchange—combined with network-like behavior that creates community and fosters relationships.

It's difficult to "fake" a blog these days. When I did work for HP, we pleaded with them not to launch a "fake blog" which featured a made-up persona named "Ted". Ted apparently ran a "blog" about TVs and coincidentally had a writing style that sounded just like a marketer.

Blogs are getting embraced because they are real (at least the good ones are). Often times, the authors of industry blogs are active practitioners themselves and blog out of passion for what they do. Blogs are gradually establishing credibility one post at a time. When I go to a meeting, its almost as common for someone to reference a blog source as it is a respectable resource such as Forrester.

On this note, blogs often times have a leg up. They are usually ahead of the curve on trends and often times very accurate. Not to mention blog networks point you to all sorts of great resources at no cost.

Get the picture? Just like the "inside employee/friend" example, I trust these resources for real talk and unfiltered perspective. And not only that, they talk back. What happens in the comments area of blogs is almost as interesting as the posts themselves. If someone says something interesting, you have instant access to their blog (if they have one) and so the network grows.

That's how I was invited to participate on Marketing Profs Daily Fix. Ann Handley handled one of my comments, checked out Logic+Emotion and extended an invitation for me to guest blog.

So what's next? I have no idea. But if we stay real, the social network we are a part of should continue to build momentum. Back to hugh—people are recognizing bullshit where and when they see it. The blog community has a fantastic opportunity (and obligation) to serve it up "straight" wherever and whenever we can. Blogs can model authenticity to our traditional marketing counterparts. If we don't—it's just more "blah, blah, blah"...

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Hershey hires Ad Agency Ogilvy and Mather to create an experiential retail store located in the heart of Manhattan. Product design and branding firm Fuse Project teams up with Crispin Porter to push the envelope for Mini. Microsoft looks to marketing firm AKQA to re-design their XBOX interface. Frog Design launches a marketing campaigning for GE where people can upload personal photos which in turn displays them to the millions of people passing through Times Square. If you think that the lines between Design and Marketing aren't blurring, here's one more reason to reconsider:

Young & Rubicam's New York chief creative officer Gary Goldsmith has recruited former Lowe director of design Greg Crossley to become head of design, a new role at the WPP Group agency.

The move is driven by Y&R's desire to broaden its creative palette as clients increasingly seek ideas beyond advertising. "Design is becoming more and more a big part, an important part of establishing corporate presence," said Goldsmith, citing Apple as one example. Crossley is "going to be there for our clients and certainly for pitches and for internal communications and branding issues."

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

In Cathy Clift's recent article titled Account Planning in the New Age of Customer Centricity, Cathy makes some compelling points about how traditional Account Planning is poised to evolve into a discipline that analyzes the customer journey as a collection of experiences—and provides insights on how to reach the customer on their terms. She also references Ideo's method cards. Interestingly enough—I recently busted these out at a meeting to help fuel some ideas. It will be interesting to see how this dialogue continues. Worth reading. Below are a few select quotes:“Account planning, a staple of multi-national networks in the
pre-dot.com bust era, is enjoying resurgence as clients once again
focus on strategies for growth. But our world has changed radically
since the core tenets of account planning were established by Jane
Newman in the late 1980’s – and now it’s time for a re-think.”“Clients are reacting by shifting their marketing dollars away from mass
media and towards a more targeted strategy, incorporating more
customized content. But what’s changing is more than just media
strategy. What is emerging is a profound shift in clients’ marketing
philosophies—away from the product-centric culture that we’re all
familiar with, and towards a new age of customer centricity that
leading retailer Best Buy calls “a journey towards a deeper
relationship with the customer.”

“The lesson for agencies is that our old product (advertising) tells
consumers what to expect from the brand—but the real equities are
created by experiencing the brand in action.”

“A third short-cut is to take a leaf out of the book of leading design
companies such as Ideo, which have been finding imaginative ways to
understand brand experience for many years. Ideo has crafted a set of
systematic research methods for understanding what the firm calls
“human factors”, organized under the headings “Learn”, “Look”, “Ask”
and “Try”. If you don’t have time to undertake even a compressed
ethnographic study of actual brand users, Ideo has developed techniques
for enabling you to re-create the experience for yourself. And after
years of internal use, it has collected those techniques into a set of
51 funky oversized cards that anyone can buy for $49.”

“As the power of the image makers is eroded, we now have an opportunity
to re-invent ourselves as “experience planners” and borrow new tools of
insight from the worlds of anthropology, psychology, biomechanics and
similar disciplines to power our success. While unexplored territory
for some, the more we can guide the overall brand experience across the
customer lifecycle, the more value we will add to both our agency and
our clients.”

Thursday, April 13, 2006

How BMW Turns Art into ProfitWonderful article from the Harvard Business Review featuring Chris Bangle from BMW. It's a great real- world case study that provides an inside look at how the premium brand balances creativity with business:

Thursday, April 06, 2006

GE is pushing the brand in the right direction with the "Picture a Healthy World Campaign". This is smart B2B... take a stand on an issue that effects all of us. Get consumers thinking differently about health and prevention and GE's role in change.

Real people will power the World Health Day Times Square "road block" (ie: GE takes over of most of the video real estate in the area... a first). Pictures and smart health tips can be uploaded on the campaign site or in Times Square kiosks.

Consumer powered Time Square promos (Nike, Kodak) are now standard practice. More at AdFreak.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

The Mass Marketing world needs a wake up call. While many agencies have figured out that consumers place more trust and value in the information that they get from peers vs. marketing channels—the temptation to control the "campaign" is still alive and well. There are plenty of examples on the Web of handing control over to the customer and letting them sound off. Here are just two. Jonga, a mash up combining content from Google, Nike and "Jonga TV" provides and invitation-only forum for enthusiasts to participate in. USA Network encourages viewers to show off their character by creating a profile complete with video, photos and consumer generated content. One word of caution—consumers are more empowered and knowledgeable than ever before. Try to fake this kind of facilitation and do so at your own peril.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Your Agency Just Designed Your ProductAQKA, a marketing agency with a knack for creating interactive experiences not only generates marketing campaigns for their XBOX client—they helped design the product. This is not new news if you follow the interactive marketing industry, however—it does illustrate a trend that we'll probably be seeing more of. The traditional role of an agency has been to persuade consumers to buy product—to take action—often by using effective storytelling techniques that connect with the consumer. But lately marketing and advertising agencies are being tasked with creating the end experience in which the consumer interacts. Some have called this consumer engagements.

Ogilvy didn't just create a wonderful campaign for Hershey Chocolate—they planned, architected, designed and helped build the experiential Hershey Store located in Times Square. So what we are seeing is brand as the message, meeting brand as the experience with the same agency participating in both areas. Stay tuned, there will be more of this to come as more players emerge over time.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Two Great Tastes That Taste Great TogetherI've been a fan of this collaborative effort for some time. If you have not checked out Housingmaps—you should. It's a great example of merging two great experiences into one. The map engine powered by Google is delicious by itself, but then you get the benefit of directly linking into Craigslist's Data—photos and all. Yum. Makes me want to put my place on the market.